Good points Roland,
However, the soy controvery is still totally up in the air. I did read "The Whole Soy Story" and went anti-soy for quite some time. But now, after reading other research and speaking with certain reputable physicians (there's very few), soy in
moderate quantities may not have negative effects in women, and may actually help reduce PMS symptoms and other undesirable menstrual responses (because the soy estrogen-like compounds may compete with the PMS-stimulating effects of estrogen and reduce the symptoms). It's not the same case for men though, as unlike women, their normal estrogen and estrogen-like compound tolerance range is much smaller. For women, we can handle a bit more of a flux without too much change in our health and physique (that's what our menstrual phases do).
But, I'm not an advocate of soy as your
only source of protein in a protein shake. That's why I mentioned Rice; yes, it tastes a bit like dirt, but in a shake, you can add berries and other ingredients that you like to cover the taste. There are also other brands out there, that maybe taste different - here in Canada (where I am right now), I've just seen three new brands and am considering giving them a shot. I too have issues with whey, and can only tolerate a small amount - i.e once a day, no more.
As far as not having any estrogen show up on blood tests.... remember that the blood tests we can get from our doctors only measure ONE TYPE of estrogen (like Roland said). They don't consider all the other forms, which can have the same effects as the one form that is measured. For example, I was amenorrheic for 5 years and during that time my estrogen (measured by the doctor) and LH with FSH were almost non-existant. Recently though for the past year, I've been completely regular and that was without any exogenous estrogen (i.e., BC). On subsequent blood tests I figured these female hormones would have been right back in the normal range, but to my surprise, they were EXACTELY the same. Estrogen was still below the sensitivity of the analysis, and the other hormones were still in the range of a post-menopausal woman. SO.... I spoke with professors in my Univ plus other female professors that specialize in female hormone measurement, and they told me that estrogen is still low because it's the other forms of estrogen that are elevated compared to earlier - not the one that can be measured by your doctor.
So, even if you eat estrogen-like compound containing foods, such as soy and flax, you may not see a change in that one form of estrogen, but, there are elevations in those food forms of E that are not easily measured.
All in all, if you want to avoid the effects of high estrogen family compounds, such as increased body fat, thinner skin, etc, you would want to
minimize the use of the foods containing these, which would be soy (and flax). Small amounts a few times a week, shouldn't be too much of a problem for a woman, but larger doses likely will be --- that's why you should consider other sources; there's also hemp protein....
Thank you for bringing this up Roland.
One more thing Juile, I think we've spoken about this before, but you say that you can't eat whey, but you can eat cottage cheese and kefir, which contain whey. What's the explaination for that? Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lost Dog
I say no for you. It's estrogen like properties, not estrogen. Like synthetic hormones vs. bioidentical hormones. Our bodies respond differently by up and down-regulating other hormones in response.
What will estrogen plus something that's estrogen-like do your hormone production. It may slow actual estrogen production, yet not trigger the proper hormonal responses that should be taking place to balance things out.
Did someone say rice?  |